


Genius Loci

by Redrikki



Category: Downton Abbey
Genre: Gen, Haunted Houses, Implied/Referenced Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-07 03:07:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26009995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Redrikki/pseuds/Redrikki
Summary: Downton Abbey consumes people and it won't let Thomas go.
Relationships: Thomas Barrow & Downton Abbey, Thomas Barrow & Phyllis Baxter
Comments: 3
Kudos: 67





	Genius Loci

**Author's Note:**

> Based on this brilliantly creepy [tumblr post](https://barrowbloggingarchive.tumblr.com/post/186066980548/i-sent-you-a-message-yesterday-that-im-pretty) positing that, while everyone else on the show is loving in a comedy of errors, Thomas Barrow's life is a Gothic horror.

Downton Abbey wouldn't let Thomas Barrow go. There were plenty there, Carson chief among them, who'd be more than happy to see the back of him, but the house itself seemed bound and determined to sabotage his every attempt at escape. Philip, the war, the grocery business, his latest wretched job search: all had come to naught. Even other people's plans to be rid of him never worked.

What Thomas couldn't figure out was why him. Other maids and footmen came and went without trouble. The creaky stairs had been suspiciously silent the night O'Brien made her escape. The damn place had let itself be set on fire to be rid of Jimmy, yet Thomas it clung to like Miss Sybbie with her favorite doll. It made no bloody sense.

"Is it love or hate, do you suppose?"

"What?" Miss Baxter looked up from the book she'd been reading to him. She'd scarcely left him alone since pulling him from the bathtub and he couldn't quite get his mind round that either. It wasn't as though he was going to try again when he could barely sit up in bed without feeling like he would topple over. 

"The house," he explained.

"Well," Miss Baxter marked her page and laid book in her lap to give him her full attention, "I suppose I have grown fond of it."

"No," Thomas shook his head. "Which do you think it—" He broke off. There was no way to say it without sounding like a mad man. He doubted the house would let him be sent to an asylum, but he couldn't have her thinking he was crazy. Not on top of everything else.

Downton consumed people was the thing. Lady Sybil, Miss Swire, William, the Turkish gentlemen: it had swallowed them whole. Thomas it had slowly been eating alive for years. The war had been like that. It had taken a blood sacrifice to get him out of the trenches. He'd have thought every drop would have been enough to get him as far as the church yard, or where ever it was they buried suicides, but it seemed the house had other ideas.

"Why couldn't it just let me go?"

Miss Baxter's face crumpled and, for a second, he thought she might cry. "Oh, Thomas," she said, carefully taking his hand, "it's love. I swear to you, it's love."

The house signed and settled around them as if to comfort him as well. Thomas's skin crawled.

"Oh, god," he gasped. She was right. The realization sat like a weight on his chest making it impossible to catch his breath. Tears pricked his eyes. It was love, wasn't it? Not the selfless love he'd borne for Jimmy, but rather the childish one he'd had for his stuffed rabbit when he was a boy. He'd managed to tear the ears clean off, dragging the poor thing around everywhere. At this rate, there'd be nothing left of him by the time the house got through playing with him. He'd be worn to bits. "Why couldn't it have been hate?" he managed to choke out. 

Miss Baxter began to cry, but Thomas meant it. Hate, at least, he was used to. That he could manage. It was love, even Downton's careless, selfish sort that he had no idea what to do with. The windows rattled and moaned as Miss Baxter sobbed like her heart was breaking. He'd never set out to break hearts. He hadn't meant to hurt either of them. He'd just wanted to leave on his own terms.

**Author's Note:**

> Is Thomas crazy or on to something? You decide.


End file.
